Human
Modern humans (Homo sapiens, ssp. Homo sapiens sapiens) are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina, a branch of the tribe Hominini belonging to the family of great apes. They are characterized by erect posture and bipedal locomotion; high manual dexterity and heavy tool use compared to other animals; and a general trend toward larger, more complex brains and societies.34 Early hominins—particularly the australopithecines, whose brains and anatomy are in many ways more similar to ancestral non-human apes—are less often referred to as "human" than hominins of the genus Homo.5 Several of these hominins used fire, occupied much of Eurasia, and gave rise to anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 315,0006 years ago.78 They began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago. In several waves of migration, anatomically modern humans ventured out of Africa and populated most of the world.9 The spread of humans and their large and increasing population has had a profound impact on large areas of the environment and millions of native species worldwide. Advantages that explain this evolutionary success include a relatively larger brain with a particularly well-developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, which enable high levels of abstract reasoning, language, problem solving, sociality, and culture through social learning. Humans use tools to a much higher degree than any other animal, are the only extant species known to build fires and cook their food, and are the only extant species to clothe themselves and create and use numerous other technologies and arts. Humans are uniquely adept at using systems of symbolic communication (such as language and art) for self-expression and the exchange of ideas, and for organizing themselves into purposeful groups. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of values,10 social norms, and rituals, which together form the basis of human society. Curiosity and the human desire to understand and influence the environment and to explain and manipulate phenomena (or events) has provided the foundation for developing science, philosophy, mythology, religion, anthropology, and numerous other fields of knowledge. Though most of human existence has been sustained by hunting and gathering in band societies,11 increasing numbers of human societies began to practice sedentary agriculture approximately some 10,000 years ago,12 domesticating plants and animals, thus allowing for the growth of civilization. These human societies subsequently expanded in size, establishing various forms of government, religion, and culture around the world, unifying people within regions to form states and empires. The rapid advancement of scientific and medical understanding in the 19th and 20th centuries led to the development of fuel-driven technologies and increased lifespans, causing the human population to rise exponentially. Today the global human population is estimated by the United Nations to be near 7.6 billion. In Dragons: A Fantasy made real Humans were mostly secondary characters in the documentary. Dr. Jack Tanner of the London museum once found a Tyrannosaurus rex with burn-marks when he visited Montana, and one of the few, if not only, ones who were convinced that a dragon had killed the dinosaur. Later, he and two other scientists were contacted by Romania to identify a dragon-like creature that had been found in a cave in the mountains nearby (discovered, along with several dead knights from the middle-ages, by a search & rescue team who came for a pair of skiers). In the Forest Dragon segment, a primitive human had witnessed the dragon barbecuing a Tiger, and later lit a torch from the blaze: this marked the beginning of humanity's exploitations of fire. In the Mountain Dragon segment, the mountain-dragon became a nuisance in human eyes for hunting their livestock, and as a result many were slaughtered and the species itself was driven toward extinction (though some still survived in the Carpathian-mountains). A pair of knights (a lord and a square) climb the mountains and later, when the mother is away hunting, the dragon's cave (whether they knew the dragons were living there and tracked them down or simply found this out by accident is uncertain), then began exploring inside, eventually finding the young dragon and kill it. The lord then painted his face with the dragon's blood. When the mother returned, the lord attempted to kill her too, only to be sent running for his life with a stream of fire right behind him, and while his exact fate is unknown, the fire may have caught him or he wounds up falling off a cliff. The square, meanwhile, had hidden in a crevice, but was found and killed. Four more humans (this time mercenaries paid to get even with the dragon) later arrive, complete with a large collecting of weapons. Either by sheer luck or careful planning, they catch the dragon depleted of the fuel reserves she needs to fly and breath-fire (though the former wouldn't be of much use in a small cave anyway), even so she was far from defenseless: she had clawed-feet and the trademark arrowhead-shaped tail, the latter she managed to kill one of them with and another with the former. After killing the third one, last one pointed a spear toward her while she reared up to body-slam him, and both die simultaneously (the dragon from being impaled by the spear, the human from being crushed to death by the dragon). In the present many of the dead knights were found and brought to the facility along with one of the dragons where Tanner arrived, and after discovering the dragon that was found was the youngster, he and his team head to the very same cave. Tanner himself found three more knights in a sealed-up chamber: the last of which was found with the mother dragon. See also *Jack Tanner External links Category:Animals